THE MODERN-DAY EXODUS

God’s people are persecuted. Treated unfairly. Killed unjustly. Tortured inhumanely. They flee. Exodus.

Are visions of Pharaoh, plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea filling your head? I assume they are, and you’re not wrong. And yet, Christian exodus is a modern story too. One that evangelicals are largely ignoring. It’s the story of modern day (this very day, even) persecution. It’s the story of our brothers and sisters around the world being forced out of homes, murdered, tortured and, for some, a desperate search for escape. An exodus.

The Foreign Secretary

In December 2018, Britain’s Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commissioned an independent investigation into the persecution of Christians worldwide and how the UK Government can better aid the persecuted. Hunt, a professing Christian, discussed his motivation for the report in his launch speech: ‘a billion Christians are suffering some sort of persecution all over the world…me and my team at the Foreign Office wanted to ask ourselves whether we are doing as much as we possible could.’¹

Perhaps you’re wondering why the particular interest in Christian persecution? A quick scan of the news might lead you to believe that, yes, Christians are persecuted, but so are many religious minorities. Shockingly, nearly 80% of all those suffering religious persecution are Christian – 80%. In some areas, Christian persecution is so extreme it now amounts to genocide.² These are issues we cannot ignore.

The Bishop of Truro

Hunt appointed The Right Revd Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro, to lead the investigation. In April, Mounstephen published his interim report with the full report to be delivered later this month. So what do the findings show us so far?

We now know, definitively, persecution is rapidly increasing across the globe in both scale and severity, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.³ We know the persecution of Christians is under-reported. Mounstephen’s report points to journalist John Allen’s words: ‘the global war on [Christian] churchgoers is the unreported catastrophe of our time.’⁴

The facts

Let’s then, at least, serve our brothers and sisters around the world by acquainting ourselves with a few facts as quoted in the report:

• In 2016, Christians were targeted in 144 countries – a rise from 125 countries in 2015. These countries include ‘growing world powers’ China and India.⁵

• Within five years the number of countries classified as having extreme persecution had risen from one (North Korea) to 11.⁶

• The eradication of Christians by violent means is the stated objective of extremists groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, and the Philippines.⁷

• A century ago Christians comprised 20% of the Middle East and North Africa’s population. Today, they are less than 4%.⁸

• In countries such as Iran, Algeria and Qatar, the state is the main actor, whereas in Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt, both state and non-state actors, especially religious extremist groups, are implicated. Christians with a Muslim background are most vulnerable and face tougher persecution from all actors and especially from their families and communities.⁹

• The most common forms of persecution in recent years (2015–2018) have been martyrdom, violent threats, general harassment, legal discrimination, incitement to hatred through media and from the pulpit, detention, and imprisonment.¹⁰

• In India, persecution has risen sharply since the rise to power of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014. There were 736 attacks against Christians in 2017, compared with 358 in 2016.¹¹

• In 2018, far more Christians in Nigeria were killed in violence in which religious faith was a critical factor than anywhere else in the world; Nigeria accounted for 3,731 of the 4,136 fatalities: 90% of the total.¹² 

• In Latin America, paramilitary organisations, state militaries and criminal gangs in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala violently target church leaders (and their families) who condemn violence, discourage church members from joining their ranks or refuse to pay extortionate bribes.¹³

As a result, Christians are fleeing their homes and countries. It’s a modern-day exodus. And, in Mounstephen’s words, ‘Christianity now faces the possibility of being wiped out in parts of the Middle East where its roots go back furthest.’¹⁴

Our response?

Why do we overlook such atrocities? Does the media bear some responsibility? Certainly. We can look to the recent Easter attacks in Sri Lanka where Christians were simply labelled ‘Easter worshippers’ by Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton.¹⁵ Many feel it’s politically incorrect to count Christians as persecuted. As Jeremy Hunt rightly points out: ‘We sometimes think that when it comes to the rights of Christians this is really about wealthy people. It isn’t. The people who are suffering are some of the poorest people on the planet and they happen to have the faith that I have, that many people here [the UK] have, and they happen to be suffering very badly for it.’¹⁶

But we must look inward too. Are we too slow to value news from other parts of the world. Do we read the news through Eurocentric glasses, discounting stories from afar? Do we think that Christianity is a Western religion? And that extreme persecution of Christians must be a rarity, left behind with the crumbled stones of Rome’s Colosseum? It’s hard to relate to the tragedies in parts of the world with which we are less familiar. Physical distance brings emotional distance. My Instagram account proves that. Notre Dame goes up in flames and Instagram is filled with its image. From where I write, Paris is 200 miles away. Friends respond emotionally to a tragedy in a familiar place. And what of news from further afield? The Easter bombing in Sri Lanka hits the headlines. Instagram doesn’t seem to know. 5,000 miles may be too far for the emotion to travel.

What is our response? Let’s pray. Prayer is our most powerful weapon. So pray to our Father who is omniscient; He knows the places, the people and the situations of every country and of every church big and small. Let’s pray in the name of our Lord Jesus, who knows the fear of threat, the pain of torture, and the loneliness of being without a home. And let’s pray with thanks that the Spirit comforts and encourages those in need. Let us thank the Lord that He is their perfect help when we are so unaware. Let us pray for strength, for all our souls, to continue marching on towards to the Promised Land, through the barren wilderness and into the glorious land of milk and honey.